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HR and Corporate Responsibility: an integrated and innovative approach

Michelle Hatfield, Belfast City Airport Michelle Hatfield, Director of Human Resources and Corporate Responsibility at George Best Belfast City Airport, recognises the business benefits and people benefits of fostering CR (Corporate Responsibility) and HRM (Human Resource Management) alignment.

As one of the largest employers in Belfast, George Best Belfast City Airport (GBBCA) maintains and develops strong relationships with our key stakeholders. Good communication and transparency has always been instrumental to our business and the success of our relationships, within and outside the terminal doors.

For over 30 years, GBBCA has operated a strong community engagement programme and a remarkable ‘CR journey’. Now, a comprehensive and innovative CR strategy exists at the airport and is central to our business strategy and planning. Led by the HR team, there is a strong emphasis on our people, our community and our environment.

Our People

The airport provides employment for over 1,200 people across our site. It is important we employ and develop the skills of excellent people to ensure the airport thrives and the expectations of our passengers are exceeded at every point of their journey.

At GBBCA we have always had a strong focus on providing opportunities for our young people across the city and we are keen to play our part in creating the next generation of a highly skilled and experienced workforce.

PEYE 140213KB2_ 0098 To that end, in 2013, George Best Belfast City Airport established the ‘High Fliers’ apprenticeship scheme, which provides young people within the Greater Belfast area the opportunity to gain expertise and skills in a vast range of disciplines within an airport environment.

We have partnered with training organisations across the city to offer meaningful work placements and mentoring for young people who will complete an NVQ qualification in their chosen discipline. As well as offering 12-24 month work placements, we also run employability workshops so that our apprentices are fully equipped to take the next step in their career. The scheme has proven to be a great success to date and it is hugely rewarding to see these young people thriving and growing in confidence day by day.

To ensure our HR and CR strategy remains truly reflective of current industry and social needs, I have encouraged my team to sit on industry forums. I currently sit on the Northern Ireland HR leader’s forum which was developed to provide a collaborative network of strategic HR leaders working together to develop learning, share best practice and where appropriate, provide input into industry consultations on key employment issues.

Most recently, I’ve had the opportunity to sit within an expert group, established by the Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment and at the request of the Department of Education, which seeks to inform the future development of the Northern Ireland qualifications system.

It’s an exceptional opportunity to play some part in making a difference to a young person’s life and to make a contribution to prevailing social issues such as promoting education and tackling youth unemployment.

Our Community

In my time at the airport, we have strengthened our links with the local community, particularly through the introduction of our Community Fund in 2009. The Community Fund sees the airport fine any airline that operates late flights. This money is then invested in community groups and projects.

The Community Fund has been incredibly successful for the airport; first and foremost in building important and sustainable relationships with our neighbours, but in addition to this, we watch our community flourish through sports projects and arts initiatives to environmental and educational schemes. I find it so rewarding to see our own employees genuinely energised and passionate about playing their role in making a difference. Their full engagement in our CR programme has resulted in real tangible benefits for the business.

The success of our Community Fund has resulted in applications extended from our door step to the greater Belfast area, and to date, we have invested over £150,000 into local community projects of which we are incredibly proud.

Michael Scott from firmus energy and Dr Malcolm McKibbin, Head of NI Civil Service present Stephen Patton and Michelle Hatfield from George Best Belfast City Airport with their award  along with Tony Dunlea, Electric Ireland Our Environment

Continually improving the airport’s environmental performance across our business and the wider community remains an important objective and a key element of our CR strategy.

Belfast City Airport has a dedicated Environment Executive who has implemented policies to minimise waste and maximise efficiency, having a significant impact on how the airport operates within its environment.

We work with key stakeholders, including statutory authorities, airlines, business partners and local residents, to minimise the impact of our operations on the environment and we do this in an open and transparent manner through an independently chaired forum which meets three times a year.

Our Rewards

Over the years, the accreditation the airport has received for HRM and CR initiatives has been exceptionally rewarding. Most recently, the airport has been named winner of the ‘Local Community Impact’ award 2013 at the annual Business in the Community Regional Awards, the winner of the ‘Employer of the Year’ award at the WorkForce Annual Training Awards and Highly Commended in ‘The Right Place to Work’ at the Irish News Workplace and Employment Awards. I was also delighted to receive ‘Leader of the Year in Corporate Responsibility’ at the Institute of Directors Northern Ireland, Director of the Year Awards.

Award No 21 I am incredibly fortunate to work with a fantastic team at the airport who are genuinely committed to making a difference within our community, supporting our strong educational partnership programme and mentoring our apprentices.

At George Best Belfast City Airport, being a responsible employer is at the heart of everything we do. We invest in the growth and development of our people and in return we harness their enthusiasm and passion to ensure we have an airport our community and our people can be proud of, and this is what is truly rewarding.

To find out more about the airport’s Community Fund and ‘High Fliers’ apprenticeship scheme, visit www.belfastcityairport.com

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